Hard Drive Imaging Software. Any Recommendations?

Baldbloke · 24 Jul 2022 at 13:50

I've been using Acronis for many years. It works. Does what it needs to. Makes images of my hard drive so I can restore my pc in the event I may need to. Never had a problem with it. Quite happy to keep using it. It does seem a bit slow creating and restoring images though. Maybe that's just the nature of the beast. Good feature is I can continue using my pc whilst a back up image is being created on my portable usb drive. So speed of backup really isn't a big issue. Restoring might be though. Haven't needed to do a restore for a couple of years.

Been meaning to see what backup options are available nowadays.
Are there better, cheaper alternatives out there? Just stick with Acronis True image?
Free would be nice.

Philtor · 24 Jul 2022 at 13:54

Free version of Macrium Reflect. All you need and great too

Baldbloke · 24 Jul 2022 at 14:02

Philtor said:
Free version of Macrium Reflect. All you need and great too

I've heard of Macrium Reflect. Can I use my pc whilst it makes a backup? Is it any faster than Acronis?

Philtor · 24 Jul 2022 at 16:51

I don’t tend to use my system when imaging it. Im sure you can, but I prefer to leave it be until it’s completed. Why not try it out? It’s free after all

Baldbloke · 24 Jul 2022 at 17:00

Philtor said:
I don’t tend to use my system when imaging it. Im sure you can, but I prefer to leave it be until it’s completed. Why not try it out? It’s free after all

Thanks. I might just give it a try. I'm currently creating an image of my 2TB hard drive with Acronis. Acronis has been running for 2 hours and still has an estimated 5 and a half hours to go.

darael · 24 Jul 2022 at 17:04

I use Macrium Reflect, but I'm a bit old school and like to create my backups from the bootable USB stick that you can create.

Philtor · 24 Jul 2022 at 19:43

Baldbloke said:
Thanks. I might just give it a try. I'm currently creating an image of my 2TB hard drive with Acronis. Acronis has been running for 2 hours and still has an estimated 5 and a half hours to go.

No need for all that storage. All the ‘creative content’ can be got online these days sure